🚀 go-pugleaf

In article <74353@hydra.gatech.EDU> cegtitd@prism.gatech.EDU (Tim Dodd) writes:

(a very thoughtful article, with which I have only a few quibbles:)

>When a person is thinking scientifically that is what I will call "rational
>mode".  In this mode of thought, the sole object is to acquire the truth.
>What do we mean by "truth"?  An assertion is judged "true" if it accurately
>reflects the nature of reality.  How do we decide if a statement is true?
>We devise an empirical test and let reality tell us if the statement is
>accurate.
>
>Religious thought is typified by "mystical mode".  In this mode of thought,
>it is recognized that there exists a level of "truth" or "reality" to which
>mere rational thought does not have access.  Mystical thought acquires
>"truth" through revelations of various sorts.  The fundamental "truths" of
>religion are not subject to empirical verification because they are defined
>in a manner which precludes even the possibility of such testing.

I think this explanation is itself unnecessarily mystical, or at least 
mystifying.  

There's nothing hard to understand, and nothing particularly religious,
about faith.  Most of you probably believe that your Significant Other 
isn't cheating on you.  Why?  Have you engaged private detectives?  Have
you designed double-blind experiments to test your hypothesis?  No; you
just trust them, and recognize that this kind of personal trust, rather than 
scientific skepticism, is what's called for in a relationship.

Religion simply asks for this kind of trust in one's god.  

>On the other hand, honest theologians admit that God cannot be found through
>the use of reason.  A "leap of faith" is required to believe in God.  The
>act of taking this leap is mystical by definition, and cannot be rationally
>justified.

Not all would agree.  In Catholic theology, for instance, it is asserted 
that the existence of God can be proved by reason alone.  But "belief" in
God is generally taken to require not just an acceptance of his existence,
but trust and allegiance, and this is what cannot be based on reason alone.